What Do Gambling, Junk Food, Reality TV, Anger and Gossiping All Have in Common?

In my Rich Habits Study, I tracked over 300 activities/habits that separated the rich from the poor.

Individually, most Poor Habits do not have a significant impact on your financial circumstance.

However, some Poor Habits do have a more profound impact on your life.

Below are a few of the most destructive Poor Habits:

Poor people like to gamble: 77% of the poor admitted to playing the lottery regularly vs. 6% of the rich. 57% of the poor admitted to betting on sports weekly vs. 16% for the rich. Gambling is a tax on the poor. There’s a reason the poor gamble – random luck. Gambling levels the playing field, in the mind of the poor. The odds of winning are the same, whether you are rich or poor.

The rich do a better job keeping the pounds off: 21% of the wealthy admitted to being overweight by 30 pounds or more vs. 66% of the poor. But there’s more to this story… 97% of the poor ate more than 300 junk food calories a day while 70% of the rich ate less than 300 junk food calories a day. You can’t make money sitting in a hospital bed. If you neglect your health, eventually your rain barrel will overflow. That overflow results in cancer, heart disease, Type II Diabetes and other diseases.

Poor people love watching T.V.: 77% admitted to watching more than 1 hour of TV a day vs. only 23% for the rich. And their favorite TV shows? Reality TV 78% of the poor who watch more than an hour of T.V. each day are watching reality TV. Watching TV is a time-wasting or Do-Nothing Poor Habit. If you were to just reduce your TV watching by 30 minutes a day and re-deploy that time by reading to learn, exercising, or pursuing some goal or a dream, the cumulative beneficial effect could be the thing that lifts you out of poverty or poor health.

It seems the poor cannot control their negative emotions: 43% of the poor admitted to losing their temper at least once in the past month vs. 19% of the wealthy. Those who do not make a habit of controlling negative emotions are unable to build strong, powerful, life-long relationships with others. One outburst can destroy a long-term relationship in a matter of minutes.

Poor people like to gossip: 79% of the poor admit to gossiping while only 6% of the rich have this Poverty Habit. Gossiping almost always involves negative criticism of others. Gossiping damages relationships because people will not trust you once they find out you are a gossiper. Those you gossip about eventually figure out who is doing the gossiping. Gossip destroys relationships.

Tom is a CPA, CFP and heads one of the top financial firms in New Jersey. For 5 years, Tom observed and documented the daily activities of wealthy people and people living in poverty and his research he identified over 200 daily activities that separated the “haves” from the “have nots” which culminated in his #1 bestselling book, Rich Habits – The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.
Visit the website: www.richhabits.net

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